LAWRENCE  J.  GUTTER 

Collection  of  Chicogoono 

THE    UNIVERSITY   OF   ILLINOIS 
AT  CHICAGO 


The  University  Library 


IN  MEMORIAM 

DAVID  SWING 

BORN    AUGUST  23,  1830 
DIED   OCTOBER  3,  1894 


Chicago  Literary  Club 
1894 


THIS  MEMORIAL  of  our  late  fellow- 
member,  David  Swing,  was  read  at 
the  meeting  of  the  Chicago  Literary  Club 
on  Monday  evening,  October  29,  1894,  and 
ordered  printed  and  copies  sent  to  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Club. 

Frederick  W.  Gookin, 

Recording  Secretary. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Arciiive 

in  2010  with  funding  from 

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http://www.archive.org/details/inmemoriamdavidsOOchic 


DAVID  SWING. 


SIXTY-FOUR  years  ago,  in  the  city  of 
Cincinnati,  David  Swing  was  born.  His 
father  died  soon  after,  and  when  David  was 
five  years  old,  his  mother  having  married 
again,  the  family  settled  on  a  farm  near  Wil- 
liamsburg, on  the  Ohio  river.  Until  he  was 
eighteen  years  of  age  he  lived  upon  the  farm 
and  did  the  ordinary  work  of  a  farmer's  boy, 
attending  the  village  school  and  academy 
during  the  winter  months.  In  the  academy 
Greek  and  Latin  were  taught,  and  when  he 
was  eighteen  years  old,  by  his  work  at  the 
academy  and  at  home,  he  was  fitted  for  col- 
lege and  entered  the  Miami  University  at 
Oxford,  Ohio,  from  which  he  was  graduated  in 
1852.  In  most  departments  of  college  work 
he  was  a  student  of  simply  average  ability, 
but  was  at  the  very  front  in  literary  work 
and  the  classical  languages.  After  his  grad- 
uation he  studied  law  for  a  year  in  the  office 


of  an  uncle  in  Cincinnati,  but,  becoming  sat- 
isfied that  the  work  of  a  clergyman  was  his 
proper  vocation,  he  exchanged  the  study  of 
law  for  that  of  theology,  and  in  due  time  was 
graduated  from  the  Lane  Theological  Semi- 
nary. He  then  returned  to  Oxford,  and  for 
the  next  twelve  years  taught  the  Greek  and 
Latin  languages,  and  preached  every  second 
Sunday  in  a  small  country  church  near  Ox- 
ford, and  frequently  in  the  village  churches. 
In  this  early  day  his  sermons  had  many  of 
the  characteristics  of  the  work  of  his  maturer 
years — the  breadth  of  view,  the  profound 
scholarship,  the  exquisite  mastery  of  lan- 
guage, the  literary  touch,  the  dainty  wit  and 
sarcasm  and  the  sovereign  poetic  fancy  which 
irradiated  all.  Four  years  before  he  came  to 
Chicago  he  received  and  accepted  a  call  to  a 
Chicago  church,  but  two  or  three  weeks  later 
he  withdrew  his  acceptance,  stating  that  he 
felt  himself  unqualified  to  permanently  inter- 
est a  city  audience.  He  received  three  or 
four  subsequent  calls  to  Chicago,  which  were 
declined  from  the  same  distrust  in  his  own 
abilities,  but  in  1866  came  his  final  accept- 
ance  from   the    insistence   of    some   of    his 


early  friends,  who  more  correctly  gauged 
his  powers.  His  first  church  was  presently 
consolidated  with  another,  forming  the 
Fourth  Presbyterian,  for  which  he  preached 
with  constantly  growing  success  until  1875. 
Meantime  the  church  had  been  burned  in  the 
great  fire,  and  until  it  was  rebuilt  services 
were  held  in  Standard  Hall  and  McVicker's 
Theatre.  Charges  of  heresy  were  preferred 
against  him,  upon  which  he  was  tried  and 
acquitted  by  the  local  Presbytery,  but  when 
an  appeal  was  taken  to  the  General  Assem- 
bly, he  severed  his  connection  with  the 
denomination  rather  than  to  be  embroiled  in 
a  controversy,  which  to  him  seemed  infi- 
nitely distasteful  and  profitless.  Central 
Music  Hall  was  built  by  those  sympathizing 
with  his  views,  and  from  its  platform  he 
preached  to  great  and  appreciative  audiences 
until  the  end  of  his  labors. 

Such,  in  brief,  is  the  outline  of  the  life 
and  work  of  the  man  who  is  to-day  so  widely 
and  profoundly  mourned.  From  boyhood 
he  seemed  to  have  a  special  facility  in  the 
acquisition  of  languages,  and  mastered  the 
Italian  tongue  for  the  purpose  of  reading  the 


poems  of  Dante.  His  knowledge  of  the 
classical  languages  was  phenomenal ;  his 
study  and  teaching  of  these  languages  made 
them  seemingly  as  familiar  to  him  as  his 
mother  tongue.  His  library  contained  the 
works  of  nearly  all  the  Greek  and  Latin 
authors,  and  he  usually  read  several  pages 
daily  in  each  of  these  languages.  This 
familiarity  with  the  classical  authors  gave  him 
an  inexhaustible  fund  of  anecdote  and  illus- 
tration for  the  work  of  his  life. 

His  first  national  recognition  came  with 
his  trial  for  heresy.  As  we  look  at  this  inci- 
dent after  a  lapse  of  twenty  years,  when  the 
smoke  of  conflict  is  cleared  away,  we  can  see 
clearly  and  without  prejudice  the  merits  of 
the  issue  between  Professor  Swing  and  his 
principal  prosecutor.  The  Church  had  a 
confession  of  faith,  formulated  more  than  two 
hundred  years  before,  which  was  supposed 
at  its  date  to  embody  the  teachings  of  the 
New  Testament,  points,  however,  which 
many  of  the  Church  members  had  come  to 
question  or  quietly  to  ignore. 

Professor  Swing  formulated  his  dissent 
from  these  certain  points  upon  the  ground 


that  they  did  not  truly  represent  the  teachings 
of  Christ.  Dr.  Patton's  position,  in  substance, 
was,  that  the  Presbyterian  Church  was  organ- 
ized upon  this  confession  of  faith  ;  that  the 
question  was  not  whether  Professor  Swing 
was  right  or  wrong  in  his  interpretation  of  the 
New  Testament  teachings,  but  whether  he 
could  remain  the  pastor  of  a  church  founded 
upon  formulae  which  he  in  part  disbelieved. 
From  a  purely  technical  standpoint,  we  may 
concede  that  Dr.  Patton's  position  was  cor- 
rect, although  this  position  makes  the  rea- 
soning of  past  centuries  absolutely  final  in 
matters  of  theology,  and  cuts  oif  all  possibil- 
ity of  growth,  progress  or  development,  re- 
garding the  most  vital  question  pertaining  to 
human  life. 

The  decision  of  Professor  Swing  to  sever 
his  relations  with  his  chosen  denomination 
was  for  him  the  beginning  of  a  fuller  and 
freer  life.  He  bore  no  feeling  of  bitterness 
toward  his  former  associates,  but  held  them 
ever  in  cherished  and  loving  remembrance. 
He  felt,  however,  that  disputes  upon  ques- 
tions of  doctrine  were  worse  than  a  waste  of 
time  and  brain  ;    were,  as  a  rule,  regarding 


questions  outside  the  domain  of  human 
knowledge  and  tended  to  keep  apart  millions 
of  the  good  and  pure,  who  should  work  in 
harmony  for  the  salvation  of  men. 

From  the  broad  platform  of  the  Central 
Church  thenceforth  doctrinal  dogma  and  the 
religion  of  despair  were  banished,  and  a  faith 
was  taught  full  of  love  and  gentleness  and 
charity  ;  full  of  a  serene  and  tranquil  belief 
that  the  history  of  man  is  ever  the  history  of 
progress  ;  that  goodness  and  virtue  will  ever 
rise  triumphant  in  the  end. 

From  his  pulpit,  too,  he  reached  the 
widest  audience  yet  accorded  to  any  Ameri- 
can preacher.  His  Sunday's  discourse  was 
printed  in  full  the  following  Monday  in  one 
or  more  of  our  most  widely  circulated  jour- 
nals, was  copied  wholly  or  in  part  into  other 
newspapers  in  every  part  of  the  country,  and 
his  weekly  audience  was  thus  numbered  by 
the  hundreds  of  thousands.  The  effect  of 
these  discourses  cannot  be  over-estimated. 
The  thinking  world  was  ripe  for  the  modifi- 
cation of  the  earlier  and  sterner  tenets  of 
theology,  as  it  emerged  more  and  more  into 
the  light  of  modern  civilization  ;  was  hungry 


for  the  teaching  of  one  who  should  dwell 
more  upon  the  love  and  less  upon  the  rigid 
justice  of  the  Supreme  Father  of  us  all ;  of 
one  who  should  bring  us  more  into  touch 
with  the  life  of  the  world  in  which  we  Uve, 
and  less  into  the  discussions  of  those  abstract, 
dogmatical  questions,  which  have  been  de- 
bated from  the  dawn  of  the  historic  period, 
and  which,  from  this  very  fact,  are  seen  to  be 
incapable  of  solution  by  the  human  intellect, 
or  they  would  have  been  settled  long  ago. 

All  persons  who  have  reached  middle  life 
realize  the  marvelous  change  which  has  come 
over  the  teachings  of  our  pulpits  within  the 
last  thirty  years,  the  most  notable  change 
since  the  Reformation ;  see  the  broader 
charity  in  matters  of  abstract  belief,  the 
wider  recognition  of  the  fact  that  all  the 
great  religious  faiths  of  the  world  are  based 
upon  certain  common,  fundamental  princi- 
ples, but  which,  by  long  processes  of  growth 
and  evolution,  are  specially  adapted  to  the 
varied  needs  of  the  widely  separated  and 
differently  constituted  peoples.  No  one  in 
our  country  has  done  more  to  promote  this 
kindly  change  than  Professor  Swing.   No  one 


so  grandly  paved  the  way  for  the  great  Parlia- 
ment of  Religions,  which  met  in  our  city  in 
1893 — a  gathering  which  would  have  been 
impossible  a  generation  ago — and  the  benefi- 
cent consequences  of  which  will  be  more 
and  more  appreciated  as  the  years  go  by. 
He  was  ever  ready  and  eager  to  recognize 
the  truth,  wherever  found.  Early  he  had 
realized  fully,  as  Whittier  phrases  it,  that 

"  In  Vedic  verse  in  dull  Koran 
Are  messages  of  love  to  man. 
The  prophets  of  that  early  day, 
The  slant-eyed  sages  of  Cathay, 
Read  not  the  riddle  all  amiss 
Of  higher  life  evolved  from  this. 

Wherever  through  the  ages  rise 
The  altars  of  self-sacrifice, 
Where  love  its  arms  has  opened  wide, 
Or  man  for  man  has  calmly  died, 
I  see  the  same  white  wings  outspread 
That  hovered  o'er  the  Master's  head." 

Born  in  the  Presbyterian  Church,  his  work 
bore  the  abiding  fruits  of  wisdom,  of  a  gra- 
cious and  tolerant  spirit,  and  a  beautiful  and 
intellectual  life  in  all  the  Churches.  He  was 
a  herald  of  the  dawn,  and  to  him  all  men 


were  brothers,  who  aided  in  ways  however 
diverse,  in  the  bringing  of  the  better  day. 

In  the  great  movement  of  the  religious 
thought  of  the  nation  in  the  direction  of 
charity  and  toleration  toward  those  who  see 
not  the  truth  as  we  see  it,  the  quiet  and 
unassuming  preacher  of  the  Central  Church, 
utterly  devoid  of  the  graces  of  oratory,  but 
with  a  heart  full  of  love  and  tenderness,  with 
the  poet's  grasp  and  the  prophet's  vision,  and 
with  his  glowing  sentences,  which  linger  in 
our  memories  like  an  exquisite  melody,  was 
perhaps  the  most  potent  factor. 

His  sermons  abound  in  paragraphs,  epi- 
grammatic in  their  concentrated  wit  and  wis- 
dom— pure  and  sparkling  gems  of  thought, 
from  which  some  loving  hand  will  some  time 
compile  an  anthology  rivaling  that  of  Shakes- 
peare, Franklin  or  Emerson  ;  phrases  musical 
with  the  majestic  resonance  of  the  psalms; 
pages  where  the  orator  may  seek  for  meta- 
phors and  the  poet  may  find  his  inspiration  ; 
and  maxims  which  the  eloquence  of  genera- 
tions yet  unborn  will  crystallize  into  the 
common  and  permanent  speech  of  people  to 
whom  his  very  name  may  be  unknown.     He 


held  his  vast  audience,  not  by  the  rheto- 
rician's art,  but  because  he  had  a  message  to 
deliver  for  which  the  world  was  waiting  and 
had  waited  long. 

Outside  his  pulpit  work,  the  most  valuable 
literary  efforts  of  Professor  Swing  were  his 
papers  read  before  this  club,  of  which  he  has 
long  been  the  most  loved  and  honored  mem- 
ber. Of  late  these  papers  have  been  largely 
relative  to  the  leading  men  of  Greece  and 
Rome  :  Socrates,  Cicero,  Demosthenes,  Pliny 
and  others.  From  his  familiarity  with  classi- 
cal literature,  these  papers  have  been  most 
graphic  and  admirable  pictures  of  these 
antique  heroes,  bringing  them  before  us  from 
the  mists  of  time  with  the  picturesque  vivid- 
ness of  the  portraiture  of  a  man  of  to-day. 
A  volume  of  these  essays  was  published  some 
years  since,  and  enough  others  are  extant  to 
make  two  more  similar  volumes,  which  it  is 
hoped  may  soon  be  published  and  thus  made 
accessible  to  his  wide  audience. 

Professor  Swing,  notwithstanding  he  was 
never  a  man  of  robust  health — being  for  the 
greater  part  of  his  life  a  partial  invalid — yet 
led  an  exceptionally  sunny  and  happy  life.   He 


14 


appreciated  and  keenly  enjoyed  the  good  and 
beautiful  things  of  this  world.  Beautiful 
scenery,  flowers,  pictures,  music,  the  drama, 
and,  above  all,  the  society  of  his  countless 
friends,  were  to  him  sources  of  perpetual 
delight.  Dining  with  a  friend  on  the  after- 
noon of  the  last  Sunday  on  which  he  preached, 
in  speaking  of  his  summer's  vacation,  he  said  : 
"  The  rest,  the  pure  air,  the  trees,  the  lake,  the 
birds  and  flowers  were  delightful,  but  men  and 
women  are  more  than  all  else ;  all  those 
things  were  as  nothing  when  compared  with 
the  welcoming  faces  of  my  congregation  and 
the  greetings  of  the  friends  of  my  soul."  His 
sympathetic  nature  brought  him  many 
friends.  To  him  came  those  who  were  bowed 
down  under  the  burden  of  their  sorrows,  who 
were  weary  and  heavy  laden,  for  words  of 
encouragement,  of  cheer  and  of  consolation, 
which  were  never  wanting.  He  was  an  opti- 
mist in  his  views  of  the  future  of  his  country- 
men, whom  he  believed  would  be  the  manly 
and  heroic  citizens  of  the  ideal  common- 
wealth which  was  to  come  in  the  fulness  of 
time,  and  which  was  to  be  the  realization  of 
the   dreams   of  our  civilization.     Especially 


was  he  hopeful  of  the  growth  of  the  religious 
idea  by  the  garnering  of  all  that  was  good  in 
the  foregone  times  and  the  addition  of  new 
truth  from  our  better  knowledge  of  the  laws 
which  govern  the  universe.  He  quoted  the 
words  of  Emerson  : 

"  The  word  by  seers  or  sybils  told 
In  groves  of  oak  or  fanes  of  gold, 
Still  floats  upon  the  morning  wind, 
Still  whispers  to  the  willing  mind. 
One  accent  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
The  heedless  world  has  never  lost." 

The  approach  of  old  age  caused  him  no 
unhappiness.  To  one  who  recently  offered 
him  birthday  greetings  he  said :  "As  age 
comes  upon  us  we  must  console  ourselves 
with  the  words  of  Browning  : 

Grow  old  along  with  me, 
The  best  is  yet  to  be, 

The  last  of  life  for  which  the  first  was  made. 
Our  times  are  in  His  hand. 
Who  saith  a  whole  I  planned. 

Youth  shows  but  half.     Trust  God,  see  all, 
nor  be  afraid." 

Few  more  impressive  scenes  have  been  wit- 
nessed in  our  city  than  on  the  occasion  of 

i6 


Professor  Swing's  funeral.  His  audience  room 
was  filled  with  those  who  had  long  listened 
to  his  teachings.  With  none  of  the  heralding 
of  a  public  burial,  the  body  of  the  great 
preacher  was  borne  to  the  platform  of  Central 
Music  Hall,  and  everywhere  surrounded  with 
the  flowers  which  he  loved.  In  the  beautiful 
autumnal  afternoon,  from  all  parts  of  the 
great  city,  the  saddened  multitudes  gathered 
in  reverent  silence  until  the  streets  were  filled 
with  the  mourning  thousands,  who,  with  low- 
ered voices,  tremulous  with  tender  feeling, 
spoke  of  the  graces  and  virtues  of  the  de- 
parted, and  of  the  city's  remediless  loss. 
Most  impressive,  however,  was  the  scene 
upon  the  platform  within,  where  sat  some 
seventy  clergymen,  representing  nearly  every 
sect  and  denomination  finding  a  home  in  our 
city.  There  sat  the  priest  of  that  church 
which,  among  the  Christian  sects,  in  point  of 
time  is  the  oldest,  in  point  of  numbers  in 
the  nation  is  the  greatest,  and  as  a  business 
corporation,  the  most  ably  managed  in  church 
history.  There  sat  the  representative  of  the 
extreme  liberalism  of  the  modern  days,  reck- 
less of  all  the  ancient  landmarks,  side  by  side 


with  those  who  feel  that  the  ancient  land- 
marks are  as  the  laws  of  the  Medes  and 
Persians,  which  alter  not.  There  were  those 
representing  the  various  Christian  sects, 
divided  upon  questions  of  technical  construc- 
tion of  some  passage  of  Holy  Writ,  or  some 
point  of  church  government,  and  whose 
points  of  difference  the  great  divine  had  by 
his  teachings  lovingly  sought  to  obliterate, 
side  by  side  with  the  learned  Jewish  Rabbi, 
representing  the  nation  from  which  Chris- 
tianity itself  had  sprung,  and  which  Christian- 
ity had  since  ceaselessly  persecuted.  There 
sat  many  of  those  who,  twenty  years  before, 
in  his  time  of  trial,  had  criticised  his  course, 
and  spoken  of  him  words  of  bitterness,  but 
who,  in  the  intervening  time,  had  in  great 
measure  reached  the  point  where  he  then 
stood,  their  views  modified  largely  by  his 
pure  and  sinless  life,  his  wisdom  and  loving 
kindness,  his  gentleness  and  abounding  char- 
ity. All  these  were  met  together,  bound  by 
the  ties  of  a  common  sorrow,  to  testify  by 
their  presence,  by  their  reverent  bearing,  by 
their  hardly  subdued  grief,  their  realization 
of  the   nation's   loss,    and    of    the    lovable 


qualities   of  him   whose  death  to  our  vision 
seemed  so  sudden  and  untimely. 

To  the  large  circle  of  his  closest  friends, 
great  as  was  their  admiration  for  his  intel- 
lectual endowment,  it  was  his  heart  that  was 
greatest.  These  knew  most  the  breadth  of 
his  love  and  charity,  the  purity  of  his  thought 
and  life.  They  saw  most  of  the  genial  wit 
and  sarcasm,  exquisite  and  unique  as  that  of 
Charles  Lamb,  but  ever  without  sting  or  bit- 
terness. For  them  a  great  light  has  gone 
out,  and  the  world  which  has  been  enriched 
and  made  beautiful  by  this  benignant  pres- 
ence can  to  them  be  never  more  the  same. 
How  many  have  applied  to  him  within  the 
last  few  saddened  weeks  the  lines  of  Tenny- 
son's In  Memoriam  : 

"  Yet  in  these  ears  till  hearing  dies, 
One  set,  slow  bell  will  seem  to  toll 
The  passing  of  the  sweetest  soul 
That  ever  looked  with  human  eyes. 
*  *  *  * 

Whereof  the  man  that  with  me  trod 
This  planet  was  a  noble  type, 
Appearing,  ere  the  times  were  ripe, 

That  friend  of  mine  who  lives  in  God." 

19 


One  of  the  tenderest  and  most  apprecia- 
tive tributes  to  the  memory  of  Professor 
Swing  was  that  of  his  and  our  friend,  Dr. 
Gunsaulus,  from  which,  in  conclusion,  we 
quote  a  stanza : 

"  Our  poet  preacher  in  his  words  of  prose 
Made  hfe  a  lyric  and  its  dreams  subUme 
Far  from  his  musing  and  his  hope  there  goes 
Eternal  music  for  the  sons  of  time." 

Franklin  H.  Head, 
Abram  M.  Pence, 
John  H.  Barrows, 

Committee. 
Chicago,  October  29,  1894. 


BX 

sn 

153 


